->''Birthed from womb of dragon's maw''->''And borne unto the stars''->''By light and darkness cast aloft''->''Are dreamtide oaths resworn''->''Moon is swathed in ever-light''->''Ne'er again to know eclipse''->''Earth, with hallow'd bounty reconciled''

->''Yet fleeting is the reverie''->''When moon from shadow has egressed''->''Guided forth anew by light made manifest''->''Two bound by ties of blood''->''By Time and Fate are wrest apart''->''Unto lunar light and Gaian breast''-->-- '''The Mysidian Legend (DS Edition)'''

''Final Fantasy IV'', the fourth entry in the [[RunningGag face-meltingly popular]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game series and the first [[UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 16-bit]] game in the series.

The main character of this tale is Cecil, a [[BlackKnight Dark Knight]] in the service of the King of Baron. After questioning the recent warmongering of his king, [[DisproportionateRetribution he is demoted to errand boy]] and sent to a village called Mist in order to deliver a package and slay a dragon menacing its borders. He is joined by his best friend and [[TheRival rival]], a Dragoon named Kain. Once they reach the village, they discover that nothing is quite what they have been told: they have been used as disposable pawns in Baron's ongoing crusade to capture the {{Power Crystal}}s that exist around the world. Cecil vows to stop the evil intentions of Baron, but first he must [[TheAtoner atone for the sins that he committed in its service and overcome his own inner darkness.]]

Since the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII second]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII third]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games hadn't been released in North America when ''Final Fantasy IV'' came out, the original North American release of ''FFIV'' was titled ''Final Fantasy II''. The North American ''FFII'' was easier than the Japanese version; before the North American version was released, it spawned another Japanese version, "''Final Fantasy IV Easytype''", whose difficulty level was scaled down even more (thus, the North American version was less difficult than the original Japanese version, but significantly harder than ''Easytype''). The North American ''Final Fantasy II'' also suffered from severe [[{{Bowdlerize}} censorship]] ("[[QuirkyBard You spoony bard!]]", anyone?). Many of the [[GoodBadTranslation fan favorite lines]] were kept in the re-released versions.

Received a cellphone sequel called ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]'' (also available on UsefulNotes/WiiWare and the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable), which stars the old cast and some of their children teaming up again to prevent the same catastrophe from happening again. It, along with ''Final Fantasy IV'' itself, was released on the PSP in March 2011 in Japan and April everywhere else. Also includes a midquel called ''Interlude'' to connect the plots better. Both games use new graphics and is the largest 2D graphical change to the original other than the cellphone version. This version is heavily based on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version, and the only thing taken from the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS version is the translation of terms (e.g. Carnellian Signet rather than "Bomb Ring").

''Final Fantasy IV'' is considered by many to be one of the best games of the series; if nothing else, it's ''the'' title that had the most impact on the direction the franchise went in, and it had an ''enormous'' influence on virtually every one of its descendants, not to mention on role-playing games in Japan in general. It's been remade/ported numerous times; this has garnered some distaste for the game as [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny its story and battle system haven't aged well.]] In addition to being half of the ''Final Fantasy [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chronicles]]'' compilation on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, ''FFIV'' has been ported to the [=GBA=], and was the second game (after ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', [[NoExportForYou which didn't make it over beforehand]]) to be remade with 3D graphics on the Nintendo DS (this version was ported to PC in 2014). It's also the first remake to add voice acting, if only for key scenes.

----!!This game provides examples of:

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The Demon Wall in the [[ThatOneLevel Sealed Cave]]. If it gets too close, its Crush attack is instant death.* AesopAmnesia: Happens in the ''same line of dialogue''. [[spoiler:Tellah, while dying, regrets that his blind thirst for vengeance lead him down this road. He then asks Cecil to avenge him and his daughter.]]* AlienSky: The planet has two moons instead of one.* AllMythsAreTrue: The Mysidian Legend, naturally, turns out to not only be dead-on accurate, but the basis for the entire game.* AluminumChristmasTrees: Though not accurate to the original Japanese script, "spoony" is a real word, meaning lovestruck or foolish. Thus, it's used accurately in relation to Edward's character.* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Many areas have hidden goods or passageways, but Eblan Castle deserves special mention due to the sheer prevalence of this. In summary, there are: secret corridors on basically every floor; a Sutra hidden behind the throne; a pit that you have to edge your way across to reach a chest; and then, just to confuse you, a ''different'' pit that you'll only fall through if you try to cross it. That's not even getting into [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The Very Definitely Final Dungeon's]] obsession with paths under paths under paths, all obscured by the top-view.* AndYourRewardIsClothes: The ''Interlude'' chapter in the PSP version has no point but a quick HandWave about [[spoiler:why the Maenads look like Rydia]], and you unlock a few entries in the Art Gallery. But even then, you need a complete Bestiary to do it, and that's a GuideDangIt because several enemy encounters are rare and difficult to get.[[note]]The Trap Door enemies, you ''have'' to let them transform into other monsters because those monsters cannot be fought in any other way. Meanwhile Edge's section of the game takes him through the Tower of Babil, and several enemies are only met on a staircase a single screen long, and if you go to the top of those stairs the story progresses and those encounters are {{Permanently Missable|Content}}.[[/note]]* AntiVillain: Rubicante is an AffablyEvil Type I variant. He's actually fairly polite to the party, all things considered, and even apologizes for the StupidEvil actions of one of his underlings.* AnyoneCanDie: The game makes it looks like this, [[spoiler: but only one playable character is dead for good toward the end.]]* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: You can only have five people in your party. This game's method of dealing with it? Killing off the spares. [[spoiler:Though only one stays dead, which makes it all the more obvious.]] Seemingly averted when Baigan joins your party (who would have been a sixth party member), but Palom and Porom reveal him to be a monster on Golbez' side before you even have a chance to go to the menu screen.* ArcWelding: The Japan-only guidebook ''[[http://www.sceneryrecalled.com/trans/ff4comp.htm Final Fantasy IV Settei Shiryou Hen]]'' attempts to do this between this game and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', which is noteworthy as few games in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series take place in the same continuity. According to ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', the Dark Sword which Cecil can find and equip in Fabul was left there by fellow ''FFII'' Dark Knight Leonhardt, while ''FFIV''[='s=] Mysidia was founded by ''FFII'' White Mage Minwu. This could, however, be a case of the series [[LegacyCharacter reusing character names and concepts]] in BroadStrokes, which is standard for ''Final Fantasy''. According to the timeline established in ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', ''II'' would have taken place around 200 years before the events of ''IV''.** Remakes of both ''II'' and ''IV'' reestablish the connection between the games in a different way, with the GBA version of ''II'' establishing that fellow Dragoon Ricard Highwind has a young ''protégée'' named Kain, and the DS version of ''IV'' acknowledging this connection by having Kain mention his father Ricard, [[spoiler:who died fighting an evil empire]]. Notable is that ''Final Fantasy II'' and ''IV'' must take place a single generation after one another if these comments are to be interpreted as placing the games in the same continuity, which would mean the 200-year gap established in ''Settei Shiryou Hen'' is [[RetCon no longer canon]].* [[AuthorAppeal Artist Appeal]]: This game contains more or less all of Amano's favorite art trends. Cecil is the typical pale willowy man with frizzy white hair, blue lips, and very pale skin. He also has spiked armor and a cape, which Amano ''loves''. Rosa and Rydia meanwhile are clad in catsuits, and as for capes, it's probably more efficient to list the main characters who do ''not'' wear a cape (Cid, Kain, Yang, and arguably Fusoya, who wears a robe). * AscendedMeme: "You [[QuirkyBard Spoony Bard]]!" is the TropeCodifier for the series, being kept in all releases of the game when the rest of the script has been re-translated. It has even worked its way into other ''Final Fantasy'' games and beyond.* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: The TropeNamer is the FinalSpeech given by the FinalBoss after defeating it, saying that it will return as long as there is hatred in the hearts of men. [[spoiler:He makes good on this promise in ''The After Years''.]]* AstralFinale: Cecil's journey to the moon.* TheAtoner: Cecil, Kain, [[spoiler:and Golbez at the end of the game and in ''The After Years''.]]* AwesomeButImpractical: The Meteor spell. It does high damage and hits everything on the field. It's blunted by a very long casting time, four times longer than the next longest. It costs 99 MP, meaning Tellah will never be able to use it despite knowing the spell since his MP caps at 90, and by the time Rydia levels up enough to learn it, she can do just as much damage with Flare or Bahamut, which cast faster and cost less MP. The DS version makes it more useful by making it compatible with the Dualcast augment, unlike Bahamut, introducing the Limit Break augment to deal more than 9999 damage, and nerfing Flare's damage output.** And then in the story, [[spoiler:when Tellah ''finally'' manages to use it, it [[CastFromHitPoints costs too much energy and kills him.]] [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu And it]] [[SenselessSacrifice accomplishes little]] except for breaking Golbez's control of Kain.]]* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler:Cecil, Rosa, and Yang]] all become monarchs in the epilogue. Edge also this, but he was already a prince to begin with, so he's just ascending to the throne as expected. [[spoiler:Considering he had to MercyKill his parents and all.]]* BadassAndChildDuo: Cecil and Rydia at the beginning of the game, up until Tellah joins the party. %%* BadassBeard: Fusoya and Tellah both have them.%%** Tellah and Cid also have manly beards, but Fusoya's is by far the largest (and therefore, most manly).* BadassBoast: Rubicante, after Edge hits him with a Flame attack.-->'''Rubicante:''' "Was it Flame? Let me show you how it's done."* BadassGrandpa: Tellah, Fusoya, and Cid all join your party at some point, and all of them are quite capable of kicking some serious ass. While their ages are never stated, Tellah is presented as a frail old man, and Fusoya is implied to be [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld a lot older than he looks]].%%* BadassMustache: Yang.* BalefulPolymorph: Pig, Toad, and Mini. Some of the mages in Mysidia will use them on you when you revisit the town as a Dark Knight and continue to use them [[NeverLiveItDown after you've transformed into a Paladin.]] Of course, they seem to have no problem using them on you when you are already so afflicted which changes you back.* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Possibly. The Enterprise simply goes straight up out of the screen's range when entering the Tower of Zot, and the exterior of the tower is never actually seen, so the party could be reaching the thinner layers of Earth's atmosphere when they reach it, or possibly even out into space. It's averted later on with the Red Moon, which has a breathable atmosphere despite being smaller than our own moon, due to the Lunarian's advanced technology.* TheBattleDidntCount: Golbez pulls this off no less than ''three'' times.* BeefGate: Eblan Castle, which you can enter as soon as you have an airship. Its monsters are meant to be taken on much later in the game, but if you can survive, you end up with some borderline DiscOneNuke equipment.* BeneathTheEarth: The underground world of the dwarves, featuring mountain ranges, a sea of magma, and the lower part of the Tower of Babil.* BewitchedAmphibians: The game features ''frogs'' that turn you into frogs (and, because of how the mechanic works in-game, frequently subsequently change you back again). A (justifiably) pissed off wizard in Mysidia will turn you into a frog, but, again thanks to the game mechanic, will turn you back if you talk to him again. * BigWhy: Cecil, in the DS remake, after finding out just what that package for Mysidia was.* BlackMagicianGirl: Rydia focuses on offensive spells after the PlotRelevantAgeUp, losing her ability to cast white magic altogether.* BlindIdiotTranslation: The SNES English script had many, many mistakes. The reception this got [[{{Woolseyism}} actually led to a certain someone getting hired]], and began a trend of improving translation quality in the industry.** In particular, during the scene where Cecil and the gang talk in private at Baron's inn, [[http://legendsoflocalization.com/media/final-fantasy-iv/baron-2/tellah-big.png Cecil introduces Tellah as Edward's father]]. Tellah and Edward are not related, as the whole "spoony bard" incident makes no sense otherwise.* BoldInflation: The Dark Elf speaks in ALL CAPS in the SNES version.-->'''Dark Elf:''' YOU CANNOT GO ANY FURTHER! YOU CANNOT TAKE MY CRYSTAL! YOU CANNOT USE METALLIC WEAPONS! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!** AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: He speaks this way in the updated GBA and PSP translation.%%* BoisterousBruiser: Cid is a perfect example.* BonusBoss: Some of Rydia's summons (Asura, Leviathan and Bahamut), [[spoiler:Zeromus EG]], the Brachioraidos, and the Lunar Summons in the GBA version, and two more in the DS version, accessible only on a NewGamePlus.* BonusFeatureFailure: The ''Complete Collection'' release for PSP comes with a new ''Interlude'' chapter connecting this game to ''The After Years'' except all it does is show Ursula being born and gives a HandWave to [[spoiler:why the Maenads look like Rydia]], while many of the other questions of the sequel about [[spoiler:the Creator and the Maenads]] go unanswered. The ''Interlude'' chapter is also built on the original game's engine, right down to enemies having the same stats and some areas having mostly the same enemy encounter groups, and is fully linear with absolutely no exploration or backtracking.* BoringButPractical: The game's stinginess with MP recovery items means that you'll be relying on regular weapon attacks quite a bit. Not to mention that many characters use little or no magic to begin with.** This is fixed in the DS remake. Rosa's Pray ability has a much higher success rate than the original game and heals MP as well as HP. It is also possible to teach a character Bless, which is an MP regen spell. Quite useful, considering how much more important MP is in the remake (in the end-game your mages are double-casting every turn, and the Phoenix skill which revives fallen allies heals them equal to the percentage of MP the Phoenix-caster has.** Even with the stinginess of MP recovering items you'll find Hold (and later Stop) to be a good opener to many standard encounters. Know an enemy who dishes out painful counterattacks every time it's hit? Does it have disgustingly high health? Does it throw out nasty status effects that prevent character action? Just cast either on it and and laugh. You'll often spend more MP healing through damage than you will using Hold and/or Stop to prevent damage at all. The best part? Hold costs a measly 5 MP. That's only two more MP than the basic Cure spell. While Stop is less practical, costing 15 MP, it tends to last much longer than Hold.** Similarly, opening standard battles with a party-wide Break is a fairly cheap way to get through most of the Lunar Ruins with little effort, if unreliably due to some enemies being immune and it having shoddy accuracy. Still, as just about every single enemy has an HP count above the damage cap it's a pretty good timesaver. It's also a meagre 15MP per cast, meaning that it's far cheaper than almost other party-wide spell you'll be using by this point.* BossInMookClothing: Many of them. Special mention must go to the Behemoths and Deathmasks in the Lunar Subterrane, both of which are immune in their own ways to magic offense (Behemoths have 254 magic defence, a single point from the cap, and Deathmasks cast Reflect on themselves as their opening move, which ''will'' be before you can go), both require significant strategy to defeat (Behemoths will only counterattack, Deathmasks cast reflect on ''the entire party'' so you can't heal), and both have ''buckets'' of HP. There are also stronger versions of both in the Lunar Ruins.** There's also the standout example of the Brachioraidos. At first glance, it's just a [[FixedEncounters fixed encounter]], like many other floors in the Lunar Ruins. The only real clue is that you have an NPC warn you about it before you fight it, something no other floor has. Even then, with the way that other Lunar Ruins {{Non Player Character}}s behave, it's [[SchmuckBait easy to dismiss it as exaggeration.]]* BottomlessMagazines: The DS version gave players infinite arrows when equipped with a bow. In the SNES and PS versions, they had a limited number of arrows.* {{Bowdlerise}}: The "spoony bard" line is actually one of the least blatant examples in the SNES version. Much worse are the recurring NeverSayDie elements, leading to lines like "A girl from Baron was kept from falling down", or the total elimination of anything remotely religious like references to Hell. The latter manifests itself in cringe-worthy lines like "Fall flat into the deep ravine!" or "Come with us, Edge... To the Dark World!!" Cecil's Dark Knight equipment was also changed, with Hades armor becoming "Black" and the Deathbringer sword becoming simply the Black sword.** "Spoony" is actually an archaic term meaning "foolishly lovestruck," which fits Edward perfectly, so it's less bowdlerization and more "who even says that anymore?" ** The blade above Rosa's head during her captivity is changed to a metal sphere. At least that's roughly as deadly as the original item.** Also concerning Rosa, her Holy spell becomes White, and Holy elemental becomes "Sacred power."** In the [=PlayStation=] version, Rosa is stated to be ill due to Desert Fever. In the DS version, she is stated to be "on the verge of dying".*** It seems she's dying from Desert Fever, as it returns in ''The After Years'' and the cure is exactly the same (though it's re-translated as a Sand Pearl). It's a deliberate call back and the only differences are it's Harley who catches it, she's with you at the time, and the Antlion doesn't fight you when you grab the cure.* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Kain, Yang, and [[spoiler:Golbez]] at different points in the game.* BrattyHalfPint: Rydia, when you first meet her, acts a bit like this, though to be fair, you had just killed her mother. She has a moment like this after her PlotRelevantAgeUp as well. A far better example of this is Palom, whom players admit to loathing even after his monumental black magic power essentially breaks the game. * BrokenBridge: Several, including mountain passes being blocked by fire or ice until you clear the right plot events or recruit the right party members. Also, an underground passage leading to your next objective remains sealed until you complete a certain task.** There are also two ''retroactive'' broken bridges that later appear at two places where the characters take drastic 1-way movements. If you attempt to jump down the waterfall in the Watery Cave a second time, Cecil will remark that the current is too strong, and you will not be allowed to jump. The second is in the Eblan Cave, where one of the Eblan guards blocks the final passage to the Tower of Babil (and an eventual dead-end at an airship dock). This is to prevent players from stranding themselves without an airship and rendering the game {{unwinnable}}.* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Golbez]] and Fusoya manage to take out [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Zemus]], which only succeeds in [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere releasing his spirit, Zeromus.]]]] This also severely weakens them to the point where [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat their most powerful attacks]] [[NighInvulnerability do absolutely nothing]].** As noted above, [[spoiler:Tellah]] [[CastFromHitPoints attacks Golbez with his most powerful spell]], and only succeeds in weakening him enough to [[spoiler:break his hold on Kain while [[KilledOffForReal dying in the process]]]].* CampfireCharacterExploration: Cecil and Tellah reflect on what they have been through and plan their next move around a campfire while in a cave on their way to Damcyan. * CantDropTheHero: Cecil is the only character in the original game that you must have in your party. In the versions where you can switch your party around late in the game, Cecil still can't leave the group.* CartographySidequest: Given to you by a Namingway in the DS remake.* CastFromHitPoints: ** [[spoiler: Tellah]] does this with CutscenePowerToTheMax, but it [[KilledOffForReal comes at a very high price]].** Cecil's Darkness is a gameplay example, as it saps his health either to attack all enemies on screen or to power up his normal attack, depending on the version. This is a subtle clue that Paladin Cecil's boss battle against the Dark Knight involves [[SheatheYourSword waiting until the boss's HP runs out]].* TheCavalry: Just as the [[spoiler:Giant of Babil]] awakes to raze the planet, the heroes stand horrified and at a loss as to what to do. Cue the ''entire armed forces of the world'' arriving to HoldTheLine.* ChekhovsBoomerang: When Cecil becomes a Paladin, he receives the Legend Sword (SNES version). You find a number of more powerful swords as you progress through the game, but if you can acquire the Adamant ore and take it to a certain blacksmith, he'll temper the sword and make it into the more powerful Excalibur, one of the most powerful swords he can wield.* ChestMonster: In addition to the regular booby-trapped chests throughout the game, the Sealed Cave has nearly every door in the dungeon be an Assault Door enemy, which will kill in one hit right away and spits out a strong monster upon dying.* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Of ''both'' flavors between Rosa, Cecil, and Kain; Cecil and Rosa love one another and get married at the end of the first game; Kain is forever [[AllLoveIsUnrequited pining away]] for Rosa, even in the sequel.* ClassChangeLevelReset: Cecil's level returns to 1 after he changes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, but his HP and some other stats are equal or better than what they were when he was a level 20-ish Dark Knight. On your way back down the mountain, he levels up gratuitously as you fight random encounters, sometimes even gaining several levels per fight.* ClimaxBoss: All the Archfiends. Scarmiglione is fought to open the way to the top of Mr. Ordeals where Cecil is to become a Paladin, Cagnazzo is fought [[spoiler:when Cecil confronts the King of Baron and discovers it's Cagnazzo]], Barbariccia is fought as Kain and Rosa rejoin and Golbez retreats from his tower, and Rubicante is fought atop the Tower of Babil as the party tries to retrieve the Crystals. [[spoiler:Then comes one of the potentially longest fights in the game when all four reappear in the Giant of Babil guarding the core]].* CombatMedic: Rosa can be this, if you choose to equip her with a bow. Her Aim ability gives her increased attack power and accuracy with a bow; while it's not near enough to match the damage output of, say, Cecil or Kain, it's still better than your average WhiteMagicianGirl. And that doesn't even take {{Holy|HandGrenade}} into consideration. * ComicallyMissingThePoint: You can win the mirror-battle at the top of Mt. Ordeals by just attacking and killing the Dark Knight, and the game will proceed as normal.* CompilationRerelease: The game was part of no less than ''five'' of them: ** ''Final Fantasy Chronicles'' for the [=PS1=] ships this game with ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''.** Also for the [=PS1=], ''Final Fantasy Collection'' ships the game with ''Final Fantasy'' ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV V]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]]''.** Still for the [=PS1=], the European version of ''Final Fantasy Anthology'' contains both ''IV'' and ''V'' (The North American version has ''V'' and ''VI'' instead).** ''Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection'' for the PSP brings together the original game, ''The After Years'', and an {{Interquel}} "mini"-game called ''Final Fantasy IV: Interlude''.** The Japan-exclusive ''[[MilestoneCelebration Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box]]'' contains (among other goodies) ''all the first thirteen main games'' for the [=PS1=], PSP, [=PS2=] and [=PS3=], all in one box.* ConvectionSchmonvection: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged.]] Your airships require special modification to fly over lava in the underworld. But, when you're on foot in that same underworld, you can walk right next to the same lava with no ill effects.%%* CoolOldGuy: Cid. And Tellah. You spoony bards!* CoolShip: Several of them, ''[[CoolAirship airships]]'', no less: [[SuperPrototype Enterprise]], [[ThisIsADrill Falcon]], and the [[CoolStarship Lunar Whale.]]* CreepyDoll: Calcabrina is six of them that can merge into one giant one.* CrutchCharacter: Tellah, whose physical stats actually ''lower'' as he levels up: he's an old man, and it's meant to simulate his aging. His 90 MP, second-tier magic and possession of the Osmose spell (absorbs MP from enemies, so strategic use means Tellah will never run out of MP) is a godsend when you first get him. Even though he unlocks his third-tier spells later on, his 90MP cap is a crippling hindrance by that point and your other spellcasters will have overtaken him.** This seems to be a trait of the old characters in the game, because Fusoya also never gains anything from leveling up. At least until Level 70, but by that point you probably won't have him in your party any more.* CuteMonsterGirl: Higher-resolution graphics in the DS and PSP releases result in some female monsters becoming this. Meet [[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110404151850/finalfantasy/images/8/8d/FF4PSP_Lamia.png the Lamia]], for example.* CutsceneIncompetence: While credit is due to Tellah for at least thinking of using Esuna on Palom and Porom [[spoiler: after they turn themselves into stone]], it proves ineffective for the only time in the game. Even attempting to use [[spoiler: golden needles or remedies]] after the fact won't cure the ailment.* CutscenePowerToTheMax: The Titan summon. When seen in a cutscene, it causes an earthquake that permanently alters the world map. In later use, it's a normal summon spell. Not to mention that Rydia's level 1 at the time and doesn't even have enough mana to summon it yet.** Also, Cure spells used in cutscenes manage to completely heal the whole party, even when they barely hit double digits when multi-targeted in battle.*** Not to mention that they seem to be able to revive a fallen character, a trait normally reserved for the Raise spell.** It's been mentioned Tellah's cutscene use of Meteor exceeds his maximum MP (90) by 9, but moments before, he casts four spells that add up to 110 MP.*** Although, since he's [[CastFromHitPoints casting with his life force]] at the time, this may be justified.** The Mysidian Elder apparently gets access to a higher level of Esuna than Rosa ever gets; [[spoiler: he can cure the petrification on Palom and Porom that the player's magic and items cannot undo]].* DamselInDistress: Rosa, for a while. It might be {{justified|Trope}} that she can't get herself out, since she has [[BigBad Golbez]] and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Kain]] guarding her, and unless you've been doing some serious LevelGrinding, she doesn't know Teleport. Not that she could cast it, since she's [[ChainedToARock chained to a wall]]. ** At least until, moments after being unchained, [[NoOntologicalInertia the Tower of Zot falls apart]]. [[CutscenePowerToTheMax Then she can cast it.]]* DarkerAndEdgier: The entire story begins with the heroes angsting over war crimes they've committed. Then our heroes are asked to wipe out an entire town. It goes FromBadToWorse when characters start getting {{Disney Death}}s right and left.* DarkIsNotEvil: Well not fully. Cecil himself isn't a bad person as a Dark Knight, though he still has to commit atrocities under orders that he regrets. Eventually he redeems himself as a Paladin. * DarkReprise: "Final Battle," the theme of the battle against Zeromus, contains haunting echoes of "Airship" and "Overworld."** As well as a couple of lines from "Battle with Four Fiends".** "Sorrow and Loss," which plays when a major character dies and a few other suitably sad occasions, uses the same melody as the Overworld theme.* DefeatMeansFriendship: Most of the more powerful Eidolons must be defeated before you can summon them.* DependingOnTheArtist: The designs of the entire cast vary greatly between sprites, artwork and renders. Look no further than TheHero -- Cecil's [=SNES=] field sprites have him in blue as a Dark Knight and gold as a Paladin with purple hair, but in battle his Paladin armor is white and his hair is blue-purple, while it's white in his portrait. This is even carried over to re-released with refined character designs -- in the PSP release Cecil's battle sprite has spiked white hair with a tiara-like headpiece covering it, but his portrait has flowing white hair with a headband ''under'' the hair.* DevelopersRoom: Hidden in the Lali-Ho Pub in the Dwarven Castle. Interesting in that it includes some of the developers as random encounters in the area. It was removed from the North American SNES version and restored in the [=PS1=] and GBA release. The developer's room showed up again in the DS version in the same place, with a completely new set of author avatars and in-jokes, because it's a different team this time around.* DifficultySpike: Once you reach the Sealed Cave in the Underworld, you'll start running into a lot of enemies that do heavy damage (plus a multitude of trap door monsters that kill in one hit).* DiscardAndDraw: Cecil and Rydia.** Not so evident in the original North American SNES version with Cecil, since the "Darkness" ability he gives up upon becoming a Paladin was DummiedOut -- his class change simply results in "Whoa, commands other than 'Fight' and 'Item'!"* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The Tower of Zot. It appears right after you acquire the Earth Crystal [[spoiler:which, up to that point, you've been led to believe is the last one.]] Only once this dungeon is cleared does the game then reveal The Underworld of the Dwarves [[spoiler:and the four other Crystals therein.]]** The [[spoiler: Giant of Babil]] would be something of a Disc Two Final Dungeon.* DiscOneNuke: Tellah's high-end spells, from the time he obtains them until the party enters the Tower of Zot. Consider that Tellah's [[spoiler: Thundaga (on Cagnazzo) and Tornado (on Dark Dragon)]] spells can make 2 out of the three boss fights during that time into 1- or 2-shot battles. Within the Tower of Zot, though, the lack of places to rest and monsters that won't give up MP to Osmose makes his 90 MP too much of a limitation.* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Cid, Edward, Palom, Porom, Rydia, and Yang]] are all less dead than you're led to believe. Sometimes the circumstances that apparently kill them are the same explicitly fatal ones (or worse) that Cecil had narrowly avoided, and [[spoiler: Yang]] gets two of them.* DisneyVillainDeath: This is what happens to [[spoiler:Scarmiglione]] after battling him.* DisproportionateRetribution: You dare question the king's warmongering ways and slaughtering of innocent people, Cecil? Enjoy being the king's new messenger!* TheDollEpisode: When Cecil first goes underground, he passes by Princess Luca, who can't find her dolls. It turns out that Golbez is controlling them via magic, and he sends them after King Giott's crystal. They're [[CreepyDoll creepy enough]] alone (in part because they're apparently a [[TheDividual hexavidual]], but they just dive further into the UncannyValley when [[CombiningMecha they combine into the Calcobrina]].* DopeSlap: Porom, to Palom, many times.* DropTheHammer: Cid wields large two-handed hammers as his weapon of choice.* DroughtLevelOfDoom: After returning from the Moon, you are forced to go straight into the next dungeon, which is full of very strong enemies, culminating in ''two'' boss battles in a row (although you do get to save and heal in between by backtracking to the save point), all without being able to re-stock on your items.** The DS version has a merchant Hummingway (or counterpart) at the single SavePoint in the Giant of Babil. They compensate for this by making the two boss battles harder. Unlike the SNES, PS, and GBA versions, the Archfiends use all their abilities from the first encounters in the rematch, and the CPU battle is murder.** It also averts this. Remember [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI Mt. Gulg]]? (If not, just scroll up a bit). ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has two semi-optional-ish areas called Sylph Cave and Passage of the Eidolons, which have a poison floor and a lava floor, respectively. You can, if you want to, trek through them the hard way, taking damage constantly--or you can spend eight measly MP and cast Float on the party. See? [[Advertising/CompareTheMeerkat Simplez]]!* DualWielding: Yang and Edge can both dual wield. Yang can use two claws, whereas Edge can use two claws, throwing weapons, or katanas.* DubNameChange: As well as a few letter changes, some of which were because of playable character namespace issues.** Gilbert[=/=][[SpellMyNameWithAnS Gilbart]] the bard was renamed "Edward". Good thing the ninja Edward Geraldine goes by "Edge."** Golbeza was shortened to Golbez** Cain = Kain (pronunciations are also different between regions with the Japanese pronouncing "Cain" much like the biblical "k-eye-n" and and the English version being said the same way as "Kane.")* DummiedOut: Many commands, status-ailment-healing items, and one-use spell-casting items were removed from the original North American version of the game. The status-healing items were replaced with items that healed every status instead.** One was Cecil's Darkness, but his mirror image can cast that without a problem. This led to a lot of confusion and a bit of resentment on the part of SNES players when their shadow-self attacked exclusively with a power they themselves never had access to. It also made the resulting puzzle (ie, letting him attack with the HP-depleting spell and defeat himself without you attacking) more difficult to figure out.** The Dev-room EasterEgg was dummied out from the initial US SNES release of the game (ie Final Fantasy II SNES). It was made accessible again in the subsequent US re-releases and ports.* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Edge's parents snap out of their demonic trance long enough to say goodbye to their son.]]* AnEconomyIsYou: Played perfectly straight, but especially notable in that the weapon/armor shop in the first town is ''locked'' until you return there later in the game and obtain the key. Not exactly the best business model.* ElementalEmbodiment: The Elemental Archfiends are the embodiment of earth, fire, air, and water.%%* ElementalRockPaperScissors: A ''Final Fantasy'' staple.* ElementalTiers: You fight the [[FourElementEnsemble Elemental Archfiends]] in order of their strength, starting with Scarmiglione (Earth), then Cagnazzo (Water), Barbariccia (Wind), and finally the strongest, Rubicante (Fire).* TheEmpire: Baron sort of becomes one early in the game. It does attack and ruin various nations to steal their Crystals, but it doesn't expand its borders.* EqualOpportunityEvil: Baron's forces consist of both humans and monsters. This is made most apparent during the Siege of Fabul, where Golbez sends his troops to steal the Wind Crystal.* EquipmentSpoiler:** You can find throwing stars for Edge in Eblan Cave before he joins the party at the end.** The armor shop in Mysidia sells Paladin equipment; it can be bought before you have someone who can use it. As well you should, since Cecil's Dark Knight armor is gone once you complete the Paladin trial, and it's a long way down the mountain.* EscapeBattleTechnique: Edge can use a smoke bomb to get the party out of a battle.* EternalEngine: The Tower of Zot, the Tower of Babil, and the Giant of Babil.* EvenEvilHasStandards: Rubicante. He heals you to full strength before both battles he's involved in. [[spoiler:He also apologizes to Edge when Lugae transforms his parents into monsters, saying Lugae had no authorization to do so, and Rubicante didn't want that in the first place.]] He's also the only Archfiend to not try and kill you with his last breath.* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of Babil, which is massive enough to rise from the world underground all the way up high in the skies above the surface of Earth.* FakeKing: [[spoiler:The King of Baron is really Caignazzo, Archfiend of Water. The real king is also Odin.]]* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Roughly 60% of the game involves the main characters failing at the tasks they set out to complete, especially when it comes to trying to stop Golbez from getting the crystals.* FantasyCounterpartCulture:** Fabul for ImperialChina.** Eblan for Japan. See {{Wutai}} below for more details.* FictionalEarth: The planet the game takes place on is named Earth.[[note]]or Mother Earth for the Dwarves, or Blue Planet for the Lunarians[[/note]] However, the landmasses are [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Overworldmapff4official.jpg definitly not ours]]. The surface where most people live is named "Overworld" and the inside where Dwarves live is the "Underworld".* FightingAShadow: The end of the first boss battle with Golbez is possibly this; he's just fine, while his shadow's hand is still able to creep up and take the crystal. Also, two possible random encounters (that get boss music, no less) are Zemus' Mind and Zemus' Breath* FightingFromTheInside: Edge's parents. They manage to break through once Edge shows up. [[spoiler:Albeit just long enough to say goodbye to their son.]]* FissionMailed: At least thrice. It happens in the fight with the Dark Elf, the second fight with Golbez, and again [[spoiler:in the one with Zeromus.]] The game just loves this.* FiveManBand** TheHero: Cecil.** TheLancer: Kain [[{{Pun}} (duh)]].** TheSmartGuy: Edge, of the Trickster variety.** TheBigGuy: Rydia, with the highest damage cap.** TheChick: Rosa, as TheHero's LoveInterest, TheLancer's crush, the healer, the DamselInDistress, and TheHeart.* FourIsDeath: It's in the title, which means bad things for the cast. In linear order from the start of the game, [[spoiler:Kain is presumed dead, Rydia, Yang, and Edward are lost at sea, Palom and Porom perform a HeroicSacrifice, then Tellah performs one, followed by Yang and Cid. In other words, more than ''half'' the main cast almost dies during the course of the game. They get better later except for Tellah, but as far as you know during the first playthrough of the game, your comrades drop like flies. And let's not forget poor Anna.]]** The more blatant example are the Archfiends.* FragileSpeedster: Edge. He's the fastest character in the game, bar none (and in the DS version, he's almost absurdly quick). However, he only has an average amount of HP, and he takes far more damage than Cecil or Kain do.* FrankensteinsMonster: Barnabas, Dr, Lugae's creation, albeit one that requires a lot of oil to function.* FunnyBruceLeeNoises: This is likely what the SNES translation was going for with the monks' "ACHOO!" battle cry.* GameBreakingBug: Sometimes called the ''[[Film/DieHard Die Hard]]'' bug, the game remembers the last 63 flights of stairs you have accessed in a single area. The 64th stairway will reset the counter to 0, making the game think you are on the world map. Now, if you try to go downstairs again you'll enter the MinusWorld and can drop 44 more floors before the game either warps you to a random room in the game (like right in front of the final boss) or deletes your game saves. Speed runs of the NES Die Hard game involve a ''lot'' of time spent running up and down a single staircase.* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: ** You begin the game with Cecil and Kain, both trained knights in the service of the Baron kingdom. Both start at level 10 with some pretty good equipment. Rydia, the first other character who joins you, is a small child. She starts at level 1 with minimal equipment.** Rydia learns black magic (attack spells). Like other ''Final Fantasy'' games, battle spells follow most of the standard element patterns (fire, ice/water, lightning). Rydia learns ice and lightning magic on her own by gaining levels, but not fire. Why? Her hometown was destroyed by a fire, and she ''hates'' fire as a result. She only finally unlocks fire magic when the group needs to proceed past a wall of ice to warn another town of an impending attack, and there are no other black magic users currently in the party. The fact that innocent people will die if they can't be warned in time allows her to overcome her psychological block and cast fire to melt the ice.** Edward, who is established as a wimpy musician, not a talented fighter, and a bit of a coward, has the Hide command, which even happens automatically if his HP runs low. The game might even take this a bit too far; his frailty is such that he is outdone by a small child in terms of robustness.** After Cecil becomes a paladin, his appearance [[GoodCostumeSwitch appropriately changes]]. Also, he can no longer use any of the dark knight equipment.* GameplayAndStorySegregation: ** Rydia doesn't learn Fire until a plot event, because she gained a phobia of fire when Cecil burned down her village. However, with excessive LevelGrinding, it's possible to have her learn Firaga before said plot event occurs.** When you get to Damcyan Castle, you find it under attack and filled with injured and dying people. Yet, despite having ''two'' white mages in your party and most likely dozens of potions and phoenix downs in your inventory, you can't do a thing to help any of them. This becomes utterly jarring when [[spoiler:an important NPC passes away in your healer's arms without him even attempting to heal her]], and despite there being ''two'' magical healing pots capable of fully restoring all your health with a single touch in the very same room. What, he couldn't be bothered to cast a Cura spell or carry her twenty feet over to one of them? Didn't want to interrupt her dramatic final words? [[OhMyGods For Odin's sake]], one of the dying soldiers pitifully begs you to take him to one of the healing pots, but the game just won't let you help him. Even if Tellah is too enraged to help, Cecil or Rydia should be capable of doing something.*** Especially strange considering the game averts this in several other places. Like Rydia casting cure on the party after [[spoiler:they lose the wind crystal]], Rosa casting Cura on Edge after his defeat, or Tellah at least trying to Heal [[spoiler:the twin's petrification.]]** Titan is only able to alter the World Map upon its first appearance.** After falling for the pitfall trap in the Tower of Babil, you'd think a Warp spell would've taken the party back up a floor. Yet nobody even suggests the idea.*** Also the Tower itself appears on the Overworld map surrounded by a large black hole. You'd think it'd be possible to fly an airship through, much like the hole that's sometimes open near Agart, but you'd be wrong.* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: [[spoiler:Cecil, to Edward, after the Red Wings firebomb Damcyan into oblivion and Edward is in HeroicBSOD mode.]]* GlassCannon: Rydia, Edge, and Palom; Rydia starts out at 30 HP and at level 99, her HP barely passes the 5,000 mark. On the other hand, her Summon magic serves as the strongest in the game. Edge is much like her; while he has more health and is physically powerful (and possesses the Throw skill, which borders on being a GameBreaker), he is as durable as Rydia is. Palom is much like Rydia, except that he specializes in BlackMagic. In fact, if you want to use him for the final battle (you can do this in the GBA and PSP ports of the game), he knows the super-powerful Meteor and Flare spells.** In the GBA-based remakes, Edward also counts, being the glassiest cannon of them all. His statistics aren't absurdly overwhelming (he does get nice Speed), he gets useful commands, but for some reason his endgame harps are utterly amazing weapons that in many ways outclass all others. He attacks like an archer, except more accurately without the ammunition limit, and his harps are strong against some particularly pernicious enemy types (or in one case, all enemy types, period). Damage-wise, he can't do anything but a basic attack, but his basic attack effectively becomes a faster version of a powerful single-target spell that can't be blocked by Reflect and costs no MP, all because of the improbable superiority of his weapons.* GlobalAirship: You get a few of these throughout the course of the game. First up is the Enterprise, master engineer Cid's pride and joy. The second is the Falcon, which the party steals from an enemy base. [[spoiler:The last is the Big Whale, an airship capable of flying to the moon.]]* GlobalIgnorance: A justified example, late in the game. When Golbez (via mind-controlling Kain) gets the final crystal, King Giott notes that the only hope is contained in an old legend, and begins to recite the Mysidian legend. Cecil recognizes it and tells Giott about Mysidia, and Giott is amazed that Mysidia exists. To be fair to Giott, there was literally miles of crust acting as a barrier between the Underworld with Giott's kingdom and the overworld where Mysidia lies, and a crack opening travel between the two was a very recent development.* GoodBadTranslation: "You spoony bard!" appears in every English version of the game. Technically, it's not ''wrong'' ("spoony" means "foolish and/or lovesick"), but thanks to language marching on, it feels this way. [[note]]In the original Japanese, Edward says "It's not like that!" and Tellah replies "How could it not be?!"[[/note]]** "The bard ''was'' spoony. We checked!" - Tom Slattery, the guy who retranslated the game.** Rydia is almost certainly a mistranslation of [[JapaneseRanguage Lydia]] though nobody complains.* GoodCostumeSwitch: Cecil, after he becomes a paladin, goes from black and dark blue armor to white and light blue armor.* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: According to a villager, Cecil's [[spoiler: and Theodor's]] mother knew that her pregnancy was dangerous but decided to keep her child.* GracefulLoser: Rubicante praises our heroes and bids them farewell upon defeating him, in stark contrast to his fellow Archfiends, which try to [[TakingYouWithMe take the heroes with them.]]** [[spoiler: Zeromus EG on the GBA and PSP ports also takes his defeat with grace and says he is going to go back to sleep, despite the fact that he is (supposedly) a part of Zeromus' spirit.]]* GuestStarPartyMember: Tellah and Fusoya, in all versions. Edward, Yang, Porom, Palom, and Cid count as well in the original and DS versions. The PSP and GBA versions effectively make them into permanent characters because the player gains the ability to freely put them in their party for the final dungeon and post-game.* GuideDangIt: The DS port never tells you that A) Augment distribution is used to unlock other augments from characters who leave the party and B) Augments will eventually affect the stat growths of the characters who have them. You'd need a guide anyway to put those growths to proper use, because there's no way guesswork alone would let you figure out how to use them to max the stats of your final party.** And the SNES translation creates another; to become a Paladin, Cecil must fight an EnemyWithout. In the original game, players are familiar with the single CastFromHP attack the Dark Knight uses against Paladin Cecil, so the solution of letting the enemy kill himself with his own attacks isn't at all strange. That attack was removed from the translation, so the only way for 1990's players to figure out this particular PuzzleBoss was to check a guide. And in those pre-Website/GameFaqs days, that meant either calling an overloaded help line or buying one.** To get Cecil's InfinityPlusOneSword, you have to cross an invisible bridge to reach the BonusBoss you have to fight to obtain it. There are precious few invisible pathways in the game, and none of them are in dungeons. If you don't know how to reach it, it can be quite frustrating, especially since the sword is fully visible on a normal pathway.* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Cecil and Golbez are Half-Lunarian; their father, Kluya, was Fusoya's brother.]]* HarpOfFemininity: Edward the feminine Prince of Damcyan is a [[ImprobableWeaponUser master harpist.]]* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: The battle of Fabul. Even though your party wins every fight with no casualties[[labelnote:*]] other than a few [[RedShirt red shirts]][[/labelnote]], you keep getting pushed back.* HealingSpring: Although the water is contained in pots in this installment.* HeelRealization: In the opening sequence, when Cecil tries to tell the King about his men's (and his own) doubts regarding their latest missions. He is promptly relieved from command and sent out to a nearby village to deliver an item that sets it ablaze. This is what ''really'' starts his path of redemption.* HeWhoFightsMonsters: It is implied that this is what would have happened to Cecil if he had stayed a Dark Knight.* HelpfulMook: Of the Accidentally Assisting variety. The Li'l Murderer, found in the last dungeon, only casts Scan on itself unless you use the element it's weak against. If you fall for the trap, he "supercharges" and counterattacks with the -ga spell of the same element. Since it's still weak against said element, if you set your party up with Reflect beforehand, it'll keep hitting itself and counterattacking until it kills itself.* HeroicSacrifice: So, so very many examples, [[spoiler:though most of the characters who attempt this fail to die and come back as a ClimacticBattleResurrection. Tellah is the only one who stays dead.]]%%* HumongousMecha: The Giant of Babil.* {{Hypocrite}}: Of a sort: in all versions but the DS remake, Cecil finds it difficult to accept and forgive [[spoiler: his brother Golbez]], despite the fact he had done some terrible things at the beginning of the game and is now TheHero despite it, and he has implicitly forgiven [[spoiler: Kain]] for his actions already. In the DS version, however, while progressing through the final dungeon, Cecil's thoughts show him going through the process of realizing this, and makes his forgiveness and acceptance at the end seem much more natural.* IdiotBall: When the party defeats Golbez, they walk away, leaving him ''right next to the crystal he's trying to steal''. Cue NotQuiteDead followed by VillainTeleportation.** Early on, Cecil thinks he's just going on a simple delivery run with Kain to get back into the King of Baron's good graces. In the original Japanese and certain translations, he's specifically delivering an item called the Bomb Ring, which pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does exactly what you think it would do by the first word of its name]]. His shock at the fires and explosions rage rings hollow in any version where this is the case. Avoided in others, where it's merely the generic Package or the Carnelian Signet (carnelian merely being a type of red stone).*** It's actually averted in its original language, which [[SpellMyNameWithAnS distinguishes]] between regular bombs and the summonable monsters named Bombs. Cecil was sticking to in-universe logic, delivering an Eidolon-related item to a village of summoners. Most other Eidolons being far more dangerous, he just did not know it was geographically rigged to target their village.* IHaveManyNames: Namingway's ever-shifting moniker in the DS version, since you can no longer change the party's names.%%* ILied: See YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo, below.* ImpossibleThief: Edge can steal something that has an existence that's ''only theorized''. [[spoiler: In fact, to make the final boss fight easier to handle, it's highly recommended to do so.]]* ImprobableWeaponUser: Edward attacks with harps. There's even a special harp he gives the player that acts a bit like a two-way radio.* InconsistentDub: From [=SNES=] to [=PlayStation=] to [=GBA=] to DS to PSP, every time the game is re-released things get renamed.* InfinityPlusOneSword: The [=GBA=] release added several in the BonusDungeon. Most notable are the Lightbringer (for Cecil), Able's lance (for Kain), and Fiery Hammer (for Cid). Not only is their attack power at or near the maximum of 255, but each may randomly cast a high-power spell ''on top of the regular attack!''[[note]]Holy, Tornado, and Flare, respectively[[/note]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Just be careful around enemies that use Reflect.]]* InnSecurity: Cecil vs. the Baron Guards in Kaipo. Later in Baron, guards attack the party, [[spoiler:along with a brainwashed Yang]].* InterfaceSpoiler: Or rather more like {{Foreshadowing}}. Meteor costs more MP than Tellah has or ever will. There's [[CastFromHitPoints only one way it can go]], really.** Less of a spoiler in the DS version, where multiple characters try to warn Tellah of the consequences of casting it because he doesn't have the energy reserves he used to. Even in versions where Tellah can get his MP boosted to the point where he can actually use the spell, Tellah pelts Golbez with multiple high-level spells right beforehand anyway, so he was probably out of MP.** Averted in the original SNES version when [[spoiler:Palom and Porom turn themselves to stone. You can interact with them and the game will offer to let you use an inventory item (which you do in other places to advance the plot or unlock things, and which seems to indicate that there's an item you can use to change the situation)... but there's no way to save them. In the original Japanese version you could get a special failure message (well, a repeat of the failure message when Tellah tried to restore them) by trying to use a Golden Needle on them, but the item was DummiedOut in the version that got translated, and even in the original it didn't actually accomplish anything.]]* JapaneseRanguage: Rydia was probably supposed to be '''L'''ydia, which is a more common English name.* JokeCharacter: Edward. Of course, he didn't stick around for all that long in the original game.** LethalJokeCharacter: Edward in the GBA version has crazy powerful harps at the end of the game. Almost all of the most dangerous enemies in the final dungeon are weak to them; Edward might be the first character you see hit the damage cap. With his speed, even the final boss becomes a bit of a pushover.*** He is also greatly buffed for the DS version. His unique abilities have been made far more useful. While you don't get to use him again like in the GBA version, his unique abilities can be passed on to other party members.*** {{Speed Run}}ners have actually figured out a way to turn him into a LethalJokeCharacter even in the original game. It involves duplicating items to obtain tons of money, SequenceBreaking to clip through the town of Mist and obtain the Dancing dagger early, and then having him use the Dancing dagger as an item. He can deal 300-400 damage per turn at a time when most other characters are lucky to do 50. Rydia can also use this.* JokeItem: Some of the low level monsters have a tiny chance to drop a spell to summon them for Rydia. Summon Imp is exactly as useless as it sounds.** LethalJokeCharacter: Goblin, however, gives you Goblin Punch, which, if you understand how it works,[[note]]Obscene damage if Rydia's level matches the monster's level[[/note]] is extremely overpowered, albeit for limited windows of time.* KarlMarxHatesYourGuts: Ethers and Elixirs sell for 10000 gil and 100000 gil, respectively. So you'd think that any random Ether or Elixir you find in pots or treasure chests would be an easy 5000 or 50000 gil if sold at a store, right? Nope, apparently their resale value is only 1 gil. Some merchants must be making a killing on margins like those.** [[JustifiedTrope It would be pretty]] {{game break|er}}ing otherwise.** ROM hackers have found that there is code that specifically makes Ethers, Dry Ethers, and Elixirs--exactly those three items, sell for 1 gil instead of half their purchase price, giving the appearance of an ObviousRulePatch to prevent players from making a small fortune at the beginning of the game.** Possibly meant as a disincentive to accidentally sell off these powerful consumables early on when you might need some way to restore MP in a tough boss battle.** A more justified example are the rare drop summons. They're ([[JunkRare mostly]])all powerful spells that are remarkably affordable to cast, and well worth teaching to Rydia... or you could sell them for 50 gil each. It makes sense, though - Rydia is LastOfHerKind, so she's literally the only person in the world who could even use them.* {{Kiai}}: Yang's battle shout. At least the [=PlayStation=] version's is so much better than SNES' hilariously embarrassing "ACHOOOO!"* LadyLand: Troia Castle. This is also a major case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar since Troia is Irish for [[spoiler: whore.]]** It's also Italian for [[spoiler: bitch.]]* TheLancer: Kain, naturally. It's even his class name on the SNES.* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Yang, briefly.* LaserGuidedKarma: After the ship sinks, Cecil washes up right next to the city he razed and plundered at the beginning of the game.* [[LastOfHisKind Last of Her Kind]]: Thanks to Cecil and Kain, Rydia is the only summoner left alive.* LeftHandedMirror: This game is ''extremely'' fond of this trope.** Palom to Porom: HalfIdenticalTwins who are also PolarOppositeTwins.** Kain to Cecil: TheHero and TheLancer, who also share an extremely similar backstory. In addition, it is only through luck that it was Kain who ended up BrainwashedAndCrazy and not Cecil.** Golbez to Cecil: TheHero and TheAntagonist, but also [[spoiler: long-lost brothers. It was because of who their father was that Golbez ended up BrainwashedAndCrazy, which means that it's only through luck that it was Golbez and not Cecil in the antagonist's role.]]* {{Leitmotif}}: This was the first ''Final Fantasy'' game to make extensive use of the technique. Almost every major character has one, including some of the villains and other [=NPCs=].* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: The battle against Rubicante (he heals your party fully before the fight begins).* LethalJokeWeapon: The Kitchen Knife, a one-of-a-kind item that can be thrown for 9999 damage against any enemy.* LevelMapDisplay: The Sight spell displays a map.* TheLoad: Edward, in the original version of the game. He's so wimpy he even has a "Hide" command. In later versions of the game, his abilities and available weapons are increased, so that he eventually becomes one of the most desired characters near endgame. Initially, Rydia can seem to be this as well, until you figure out that her rods can be used as battle items. * LookWhatICanDoNow: Golbez appears and wipes the floor with Cecil's group, until [[spoiler: Rydia]] returns and effectively destroys Golbez's summon. * LostTribe: The Lunarians.* LoveMakesYouEvil: This sort of comes into play. Kain's jealousy of Cecil as a result of his unrequited feelings for Rosa make him a lot easier to be [[BrainwashedAndCrazy controlled by Golbez]].* LoveTriangle: Kain has feelings for Rosa, but she has feelings for Cecil instead.* LuckBasedMission: In the DS version, the battle versus the CPU. It pretty much boils down to how quickly the Attack Node begins to attack... its only attack, Laser Barrage, is ''guaranteed'' to two-shot your entire party (and it'll usually one-shot Edge and Fusoya). If you can off it before it fires the lasers twice, you have the battle in the bag...[[spoiler: unless you kill off the Defense Node. Prepare for the carnage of [[OneHitKill Object 199]] if you do.]] There is, however, a trick to this. See PuzzleBoss below.** The fact that Fusoya's "instructions" [[TutorialFailure were not redone]] and ''still'' describe the original battle better than the redone one doesn't help. In fact, if you do what Fusoya says, you're ''screwed''.* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Golbez is Cecil's brother, Theodor.]]* {{Lunarians}}: The TropeNamer.* MacGuffinDeliveryService: More than once with the crystals.* MadScientist: Dr. Lugae.* MagicalLand: The Feymarch.* MagicKnight: Cecil learns White Magic once he becomes a Paladin.* MagicMusic: Pretty much Edward's whole purpose as the prototypical ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' Bard.* MagnetismManipulation: Dark Elf has magnetic powers that cause your characters to become paralyzed if they enter his lair while equipped with metal gear. Though in a rare case of ShownTheirWork for a fantasy RPG, [[spoiler: silver weapons aren't affected.]]* MakingASplash: Zigzagged. In the 2D editions of the game, contrary to what the descriptions in certain spells suggests, water does not exist as an element. Ninjustsu Spell Flood is [[AnIcePerson Ice-Elemental]], while the rest of the seemingly water spells are all NonElemental. This is fixed in the 3D editions, where all the water-sounding spells are Water-Elemental.* TheManBehindTheMan: At first, it looks like the King of Baron is the BigBad. However, it turns out [[spoiler:he was [[DeadPersonImpersonation killed and replaced]] by the {{shape shifting}} Cagnazzo, a minion of Golbez, the king's supposed [[TheDragon Dragon]].]] Late in the game, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Golbez is the BrainwashedAndCrazy victim of MoreThanMindControl just like Kain and the real BigBad is Zemus.]]* MarathonLevel: The Subterranean Depths of the Moon, which is also TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. It's eight floors before you reach the one and only SavePoint, with five more floors to go after that, and every random encounter is a BossInMooksClothing.** The version released on Steam has a second save spot, but it's still tough to get to.* MeaningfulName: The [[FourIsDeath four Elemental Fiends]] are all named after demons in Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' - Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante.** Don't forget [[CreepyDoll Calcabrina]]!** The Tower of Babil and Kain are names that should ring a bell for anyone at least mildly familiar with Literature/TheBible. Kain even gets Abel's Lance in the GBA remake to drive the point home.* TheMillstone: '''FUSOYA''' in the DS version. Not only is he merely TheLoad (e.g. trying to keep him alive, since he's a horrifically slow caster and SquishyWizard, which usually means he gets one-shotted before he can cast, will pretty much ensure GameOver), but see the bad advice under LuckBasedMission above. Following his advice there is a nearly instant GameOver.* MonsterTown: The Feymarch and the town of Mythril. The former hosts various enemies you fight in the game and several Eidolons, while the latter features townsfolk based off the Toad, Pig, and Mini status effects.* MookCommander: The Toad Lady. She appears with a six toads that cast the Toad spell at her command...''only'' at her command. And since they have no other abilities, taking her down renders them completely harmless.* MoraleMechanic: The game had early on groups of three soldiers, two troops and a commander. If you defeated the soldiers, the commander would flee.* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Cecil and possibly Kain, after the massacre at Mist. Definitely Kain, after snapping him back to his senses at the Tower of Zot. [[spoiler: Briefly, Golbez, when Fusoya finally breaks Zemus' hold on him.]]* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: If enemies get the first strike: every single one will attack you before you even get to choose attacks and chances are that they will attack again before you get your turn. If you get the first strike: you may attack first, but if you take too much time, the enemies will attack you, even if you're using your time reasonably, like picking out a spell.* NearVillainVictory: Right before the final battle.* NeverSayDie: This is in full effect in the SNES translation, to the point of {{bowdleri|se}}zation. However, in a rare TropesAreNotBad way, this actually makes the game's many {{Disney Death}}s more believable. After all, why should the player believe that such-and-such is dead if the characters don't believe it either? ** Also manifests in spells like "Fatal" instead of "Death," or "Swoon" for "dead" characters.*** Even before the translation, this was the first ''Final Fantasy'' to have the loss of all HP count as a NonLethalKO instead of actual death. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Otherwise]] the cast's now-frequent cutscene performances [[OurZombiesAreDifferent would be awkward.]] Especially if you were planning on giving them [[ReviveKillsZombie phoenix downs.]]* NewGamePlus: In the DS version, after defeating [[spoiler:Zeromus]], you can play the game again, inheriting all those augments you gave to your characters. And if you gave the previous game augments to characters that weren't going to be in your final party, you will be rewarded with these characters' abilities as augments. You can play NewGamePlus only three times in a row though.* {{Ninja}}: Edge.* NintendoHard: The original Japanese release and the [=DS=] version were ''hard'', hard enough that the version released for the SNES was substantially nerfed in difficulty (this was also released in Japan as an 'easytype' version.) This came as a nasty surprise to Western players who were only familiar with the reduced-difficulty English SNES release who then replayed the [=DS=] version. Mind you, even the reduced-difficulty English SNES release was still pretty difficult.* NoEndorHolocaust: The Tower of Zot, a huge flying structure that falls apart moments after you leave it, never crashes anywhere. The Tower of Babil is perfectly fine (and is totally structurally intact, according to the sequels) after the Giant of Babil seemingly walks out of it. Similarly, in the sequels, there are almost no changes to the world map (not even changes to local climates, tides, or sea lanes) after one of the planet's moons flies off into deep space, never to return.* NonStandardSkillLearning: Because of trauma, [[ChildMage Rydia]] cannot use the spell Fire, until [[WhiteMagicianGirl Rosa]] convinces her later in a storyline event. Hilariously enough, she can still learn Firaga given you do enough LevelGrinding. ** Several of Rydia's [[SummonMagic summons]] can only be obtained from getting an item that RandomlyDrops from certain types of enemies. Pray that the RandomNumberGod is in a good mood.* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Multiple examples, first starting with Scarmiglione returning immediately from {{Not Quite Dea|d}}th before Cecil reaches paladin-hood.** Cid jumps down from an airship at a very great height holding a nuke bomb in his hand which explodes right in front of his face. Yet he doesn't lose any of his limbs.* NoPronunciationGuide: Many Western fans were surprised that Cecil's name was pronounced as "Seh-sil" and not "See-sil" (though both a long "e" and a short "e" are valid pronunciations for the name).* NoSympathy: Cecil and Rydia towards Edward; they immediately lay into him for being temporarily catatonic over the deaths of all his loved ones. Granted, Rydia is a kid and she immediately went after the two men who killed everyone ''she'' ever loved, but grown man Cecil has a total want of empathy for Edward. It's not with the argument that Edward needs to be strong for his people, either; Cecil is only interested in having Edward help him and Rosa.* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Dr. Lugae initially appears to be a harmless nutjob with a malfunctioning Frankenstein-type robot, before turning into a fairly dangerous boss. Only after Lugae dies do you discover how monstrous he truly was, with what he did to Edge's parents.* OhWait: Golbez insults Kain this way at one point.* OminousFloatingCastle: The Tower of Zot, which seems to be well outside of Earth's atmosphere.* OneSteveLimit: Averted as a result of an English version rename mandated by namespace issues. The bard originally called Gilbert (with his [[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables red-haired love interest Anna]]) had his name changed to Edward...which was also the first name of the playable ninja Edge ('''Ed'''ward '''Ge'''raldine.) Edge's name is unchanged but any confusion is nullified in the English version regardless.* OneTimeDungeon: The Tower of Zot which collapses once finished with.* OminousPipeOrgan: Golbez's {{Leitmotif}}. It directly rips off "Music/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor" in some places, but that doesn't make it any less badass.* OmniscientMoralityLicense: When Leviathan first shows up, he capsizes your party's ship, abducts your summoner, and derails your mission to stop TheEmpire, thus placing the fate of the world in (further) jeopardy. The aftermath leaves one party member an amnesiac pawn of said empire, another bedridden until the very end of the game, {{the hero}} stranded alone on a continent that {{h|umiliationConga}}ates [[{{Laser Guided Karma}} him]], and [[RedShirt all the ship's crew]] (since they're never seen or mentioned again) presumably dead. Everything [[AllAccordingToPlan works out uncannily]] in the end, despite (or even [[InMysteriousWays because of]]) debilitating injuries to plot-important characters. Nobody ever brings up the whole murderous {{sea monster}} thing.** The [[PoorCommunicationKills real kicker]] may be he was capable of human form and speech the entire time, but only uses those to mess with humans.* OutsideContextProblem: The Lunarians: Zemus, Golbez, and their LostTechnology like the Giant of Babil.* OutsideTheBoxTactic: ** The Reflect spell is integral to defeating Asura, who heals herself twice, at the end every round, in addition to attacking your party. The catch? You have to cast Reflect on her. That way, when she attempts to heal herself, your party will be healed instead. Asura inflicts insane amounts of damage and recovers 2,500-3,300 HP per recovery spell, making her borderline impossible to defeat without this trick.** The original SNES release has one for the fight against the Dark Elf. Ordinarily, you have to fight a few rounds of largely ineffective combat, ending with him doing a TotalPartyKill and a story sequence. This results in Cecil [[BackFromTheDead getting up]], but with his companions requiring revival. However, if everyone goes in wearing a piece of metal equipment, the game treats everyone as being paralyzed and "dead," and the sequence still happens, except with the party healthy and ready to fight. Removed in the remakes.* ThePaladin: Cecil.* ParentalAbandonment: A couple of playable characters lose their parents due to the villains (and one loses hers because of the heroes). DeathByChildbirth is part of Cecil and [[spoiler: Golbez's]] background, though it was mostly AllThereInTheManual until the DS remake.* ParentalBonus: During the new Namingway quest in the DS remake, he asks the characters for some Rainbow Pudding to give his new girlfriend. When they next see him, he complains about how, upon going to give her the pudding, he found another guy [[GettingCrapPasttheRadar giving her a present of his own.]]* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: It's possible to fight enemies from around Mythril and Troia when first arriving at Mysidia by heading north of Mount Ordeals and around the mountains on the southwest side and heading to the very northern tip of the continent. Interestingly, the path can only be traversed on foot, not on a chocobo. Battles there give Cecil 2,000-3,000 per victory.* PermanentlyMissableContent: Cecil's Dark equipment if equipped during his class change, as well as treasures in a few places:** The Tower of Zot, after it's destroyed.** The upper half of the Tower of Babil, after you leave it.** The Giant of Babil.** The lower half of the Tower of Babil, after Giant of Babil sequence.** [[InfinityPlusOneSword The Knife]], if the sidequest involving Yang's wife and the Sylph cave isn't done before the Giant of Babil. The consolation prize is that you only have to go through the Sylph Cave (and thus dodge [[DemonicSpiders Malboros and Bog Toads]]) once to get the Sylph summon if you hold off.* PercussiveMaintenance: In a non-mechanical example, this is used on Yang [[spoiler: after the party finds him unconscious in the Sylph Cave.]]* PerversePuppet: Calca, Brina, and Calcabrina.* PolarOppositeTwins: Palom and Porom.* ThePowerOfFriendship: [[spoiler:The player characters who couldn't make it to the final boss fight use this to reinvigorate your party when all seems lost.]]* ThePowerOfLove: Several moments, such as Edward defeating the Sahagin and Kain [[spoiler:defeating Zemus's last attempt at mind control]] come from their love for a certain person. In addition, giving Twincast to [[OfficialCouple Cecil and Rosa]] in the DS version yields Ultima, the strongest attack in the entire game bar ''none''.* ThePowerOfRock: Turns out the Dark Elf is weak to this. Or at least harps.* PowersAsPrograms: The Augments from the DS version.* ProfessorGuineaPig: If you destroy Barnabas before Dr. Lugae, Lugae pilots him manually, using Barnabas' vacant neck area as a cockpit.-->'''Lugae:''' My poor, precious Barnabas! I guess I have no choice. I'll control him myself!* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Or as it occurs in the Tower of Babil, "Punched across the room, through the door, and landing several tiles away."* PuzzleBoss:** The Dark Knight, right after Cecil's class change to a Paladin. The only ways to win are [[SheatheYourSword by doing absolutely nothing]], or by casting cure on the Dark Knight.** In the 3D remake, the actual way to win the Giant of Babil CPU battle is to kill off the Attack Node first, and leave the Defense Node alone, despite Fusoya's advice to the contrary, since the Attack Node's Laser Barrage is much more powerful than previous versions. Killing off both Nodes means the CPU will one-shot you with a OneHitKill. Leaving the Defense Node alive means it will pathetically heal the CPU, while the CPU does nothing except cast Reflect on itself.** BonusBoss Asura counts as one of these. She does nothing but cast high-level healing spells on herself, and any hit made against her is countered by a very strong physical attack. The only way to defeat her is to cast Reflect on her so that her healing spells bounce back at your party.** Bahamut, on the Moon, counts down to his Mega Flare attack, which is strong enough to cause a TotalPartyKill. Kain can Jump to avoid it, and some versions allow Mega Flare to be Reflected.* QuirkyBard: Edward is the former trope namer.* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Elemental Fiends. One of them has a QuirkyMinibossSquad of her own.* RandomlyDrops: The Pink Tail. It is dropped by Flan Princesses. In the room where you can find those monsters (which is a very small room with only one uninteresting treasure), you have an 1/64 chance of encountering a formation of five of those things. Each of those things have a 5/98 rate of dropping ANY items at all, and a further 1/64 chance that the dropped item will be a Pink Tail. If you just run around that room, you have a 0.006% chance of getting a Pink Tail (or you'll on average get 1 Tail every 10056 battles). In most versions of the game, you can use a Siren, which guarantees the encounter with five Flan Princesses, increasing the odds to 0.3% per battle, or 1 tail every 251 battles on average. Good luck, you'll need it.** The Rainbow Pudding in the DS version, which is necessary for finishing the Namingway quest and earning all the augments, has a drop rate of ''0.4%''. You can only get it from the various Flans. And the Treasure Hunter augment only boosts this drop rate to 0.8%. The DS version also adds ''numerous'' other types of Tails necessary for getting the only equipment that can be carried into New Game +. They all have the same horrible drop rate as the Pink Tail.** Pink Tails are by no means the ONLY really rare drop in the game, just the most famous one. There are a lot of other things in the game, like the hidden summons (Goblin, Mind Flayer, Cockatrice and Bomb), that are randomly dropped and every bit as rare as the Rainbow Pudding. To add insult to injury, the Goblin summon is pretty much useless, despite being as rare as Mind Flayer (damage, sap, and paralyze), Cockatrice (Multitarget Petrification), and Bomb (Damage equal to Rydia's health, without harming her). Equipments ranging from [[DiscOneNuke mid-game destroying equipments]] like Rune Staves and Lilith Rods, and other [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate equipments]] like Crystal Rings, extra Protect Rings, extra Ribbons, Dragon Whips, Glass Masks and so on are all [[RandomDrop randomly dropped]] and at least nearly as, if not just as rare as the Pink Tail, just that the monsters that drop them tend to be more common encounters.* RareCandy: The Golden and Silver Apples, which will increase the max HP of the character they are used on by 100 or 50 HP, respectively. There is also the Soma Drop which increases the selected character's maximum MP by 10.* [[SequelDifficultySpike Remake Difficulty Spike]]: The DS version is ''a lot'' harder than other releases. Enemies have more HP and better AI and attacks, and a lot of them are upgraded to DemonicSpiders as a result. Several bosses were redesigned to be more challenging, and some were even made to specifically counter the strategy that players would have tried in the sprite-based releases. The difficulty can be mitigated a bit with the new Augment system, which gives new abilities to improve the party's effectiveness, but they still have their work cut out for them.* {{Retraux}}: The PSP version primarily reuses the DS remake's soundtrack, but also has the option to use the original SNES version's.* ReviveKillsZombie: You can hurt undead monsters by using healing spells on them. Not to mention that (especially in the DS version), the best way to kill Scarmiglione without invoking his counters is to use healing spells and potions on him.* RiddleForTheAges: The Tower of Zot has ''no'' backstory at all. Who built it, why, and for that matter, where? Even with numerous remakes and a sequel to expand the world lore, the Tower of Zot remains a mystery the developers have no interest in answering.* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tellah tried, but just didn't quite pull it off, though he ''did'' whip out the most powerful BlackMagic spell known.* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: In ''spades.'' Two of your party members in the original game (Edward and Edge) are princes, adopted royality (Cecil and Kain were adopted by the King of Baron when their parents died), Rosa, and Yang (High Monk of Fabul) become monarchs themselves at the end of the game, and it's implied that the king of Fabul was once a monk himself. Rydia herself is taken in by Leviathan and Asura. Then come ''The After Years,'' a bunch of protagonists are royalty (Cecil's son Ceodore, Yang's daughter Ursula, and the dwarf princess Luca. ** ''Then'' you have the summoned creatures as well! Leviathan and Asura are king and queen of the Feymarch, respectively. Odin is the spirit of the former king of Baron, and Bahamut is titled the god of monsters.* RuleOfCool: A meta example overlapping with ThrowItIn -- some of the translation changes in the DS version were done solely because new translator Tom Slattery loved the original game and wanted to give the script more flair. He refers to the summoned monsters as Eidolons because he wanted them to have a proper name like the rest of the series post-''VI'', and since ''XII'' had just reused Esper from ''VI'', he decided to reuse Eidolon from ''IX'' (and later also used it on ''XIII''). Also, "The Feymarch" was a word he just made up.* ScrewYouElves: This (sort of) happens with Edge and Rubicante. Not so much of a Screw You to the archfiends, but more to their way of thinking.-->'''Rubicante:''' "I respect men like you. Men with... courage. But ''you'' are a slave to your emotions, and so will never know true strength.-->'''Edge:''' "You think our rage... a weakness? Then let me show you ''how wrong you are!''"** Edge's voice acting in the DS remake make it all the more epic.* ScriptedBattle: Between Golbez and the king and queen of Eblan, expect lots of conversations in combat mode. Sometimes you won't take control for an entire battle.* SequelDifficultySpike: Remake, actually - the DS version of the game is tweaked in several places to make several areas much more difficult than before. Two of the biggest are the fight against Golbez after the fight against Calcobrina (the trick to keep Kain alive doesn't work anymore, and Golbez turns into a BarrierChangeBoss) and the Cave of Magnes (more equipment invokes the "metal paralysis" problem, and Cecil can't equip bows as a backup offensive option).* SheatheYourSword: {{Trope Namer|s}}. Cecil's trial to become a Paladin involves not attacking.* SheIsAllGrownUp: [[spoiler:Rydia.]]* ShootTheDangerousMinion: After you defeat [[MadScientist Lugae]], you meet his superior, [[NobleDemon Rubicante]]. He then claims Lugae's actions [[EvenEvilHasStandards were horrific, even for him]] and states he doesn't hold anything against you. A boss fight still ensues, but [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen he is generous enough to heal the party first]].* ShouldersOfDoom: Golbez. So. Very. Much.** Both of Cecil's forms and Rosa have spikes on their shoulder pads.* ShoutOut: Also see MeaningfulName.** First, look at Rubicante [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060323013547/finalfantasy/images/b/b5/Rubicant_battle_sprite.gif]]. Then, look at this bad guy from ''Anime/NeoHumanCasshern'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG2W05xJ76o&t=0m47s]]. They have the same [[Creator/YoshitakaAmano designer]], after all.** Kain's father's name is Richard, which is similar to Ricard Highwind from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' (and in fact, his name ''is'' Richard in Japan - his name is shortened overseas due to space limitations). And in remakes, FFII returns the favor, by having Ricard adopt a boy named Kain.** Plenty of other Highwinds occur throughout the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, the most famous being Cid of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII.''** During the party's first fight with Rubicante, the fiend of fire states that [[Literature/TheDivineComedy "the frozen winds of hell's 9th circle"]] couldn't penetrate his cloak.** [[http://spoonybard.org/fanlisting/dawn/barbariccia.jpg Barbariccia's]] appearance seems like an intentional shout out to [[http://catherinebray.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/barbarella2.jpg Barbarella]].** DS-version Scarmiglione's quote to the party before attempting to murder them for the last time is [[LordOfTheRings "I'll smite your ruin upon the mountainside!"]]** [[Literature/TheHobbit Lali-Ho]]*** Or, depending on which town you're in, [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Hi-Ho!]]*** This could also be a reference to the catchphrase of The Impossibles [[WesternAnimation/FrankensteinJr Rally Ho!]] or the British phrase [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally-ho Tally-Ho!]]** Square's love affair with StarWars may have began with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' but this installment found other ways to make its story an homage.*** Cecil must overcome his dark side and become a Paladin if he hopes to defeat Golbez.*** Golbez is [[TheDragon a giant in black armor]] turned to the Dark Side by the robed BigBad. He [[LukeIAmYourFather turns out to be a blood relative of the hero's]], and at one point suffers a severed hand. Golbez also gets the Emperor's Force Lightning routine since the game's BigBad [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere doesn't get to do much]].*** They didn't name the [[Franchise/StarTrek Enterprise]]'s companion airship the Falcon for nothing.*** The [[spoiler:[[ThatsNoMoon Red Moon]] is not inherently evil. But acting as the BigBad's giant space fortress with a weapon that can wreck entire worlds, it's definitely [[IncrediblyLamePun moonlighting]] as the Death Star.]]** Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen came out in Japan two years before the game, titled simply "Baron." If you can't tell where they got the name for the starting kingdom, consider the trip to the moon, the volcanic underworld, and getting attacked by a giant sea monster.*** The film may have also influenced the graphics for the death spells. They become grim reapers from this installment onwards.** The [[UpdatedRerelease GBA-Version]]-Cid gives us this line: "So how are my airships? I'll bet you and your ''goons'' wrecked them up ''[[Website/SomethingAwful something awful]]''!"** The "Pig" spell is a reference to Circe in ''Literature/TheOdyssey''.*** Possibly also ''Film/{{Willow}}''.*** The spell was also originally named [[WesternAnimation/PorkyPig Porky.]]** Barnabas-Z. ''[[Anime/MazingerZ Its name sounds awfully similar]]'' to another HumongousMecha built by a MadScientist and whose cockpit is located on the head.** The Giant of Babil is very similar to another [[ApocalypseHow planet-scorching]] humanoid weapon, the [[Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind Giant Soldier]]. Made hard to tell by the [[SpecialEffectFailure lack of sweeping laser effects]], later incarnations as Alexander would show the delayed swaths of explosions better, even lumbering on its arms for extra similarity. Sadly the DS version would [[ArtShift ditch the original design]] and change it to multiple lasers from its hands.** A sign in Baron's inn in the DS version references the awkwardly-scrolling and -phrased text "l i t t l e m o n e y" in the original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''.* SingleStrokeBattle: Odin, when summoned.* SinisterGeometry: The CPU.* SkywardScream: During the destruction of Mist:-->'''Kain:''' "He wished this village ''torched!''"-->'''Cecil:''' "But why? ... '''''WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!!'''''"* {{Slapstick}}: Yang's wife and her... unorthodox method of dealing with enemy soldiers and amnesiac husbands. [[spoiler:All get bashed over the head with her [[FryingPanOfDoom Frying Pan]].]]* SmallNameBigEgo: Edge, he's the first ladies' man to ever appear in the series!* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: A frequent occurrence on one's first playthrough, thanks to all the party members that leave your party or (apparently) meet their demise without much advance warning.* SpaceWhale: Doubles as a spacecraft, capable of flying the heroes to the moon.* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Name change aside, Edward's Japanese name "Gilbert" gets written that way in most materials...and spelt "Gilbart" in a few guidebooks as well.* SpiritAdvisor: Kluya for Cecil, Anna for Edward.* SplitPersonalityMerge* SpoiledByTheManual: The SNES version of the game had this in the equipment section of the manual, as it listed a few sample pieces of equipment as well as the class of who could use it. Thus, it was pretty obvious that the various [[DiscOneFinalDungeon Disc One Final Dungeons]] were not the end, because a "ninja" or a "Lunarian" hadn't appeared yet. For that matter, the twist that there's an intelligent race from the moon is spoiled by the fact that "Lunarian" was the name of a class listed in the manual (though that plot point is minor compared to the one about [[TomatoInTheMirror just who is descended from it]]).* SquishyWizard: Rydia. She has the worst HP out of your final party, but [[GlassCannon she can slaughter enemies in no time]], even before she gets spells and summons like Meteor, Leviathan, or Bahamut.* StaticRoleExchangeableCharacter: From the advance versions onwards, the 2D remakes of the games allows you to swap memebers of the party, as long as Cecil is still in it. When you bring them over to the final battle, the new members will fill in the roles of the originals who are absent.* StayInTheKitchen:** After all of his travels with the WhiteMage[=/=]CombatMedic keeping the party healthy and the LadyOfBlackMagic/Master of SummonMagic laying waste to all that stood in their way, Cecil suddenly decides the women are a liability and orders them off the Lunar Whale before TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Thankfully, Rosa and Rydia are not amused and they stow away to the Moon with them anyway.** Also seen earlier in the game during the attack on Fabul, when Rosa and Rydia are relegated to assisting the castle's healers while Cecil, Edward, and Yang fight. Though despite being sidelined/protected, Rosa still gets kidnapped anyway.* {{Stripperiffic}}: Suffice to say the female mages do ''not'' wear the concealing robes of their predecessors.** [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/5d/Rosa_CG_Render.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/130?cb=20130326144139 Rosa]] has wardrobe problems. Never knew that underwear goes under your clothes or just simply does not like to wear a dress or skirt? You be the judge.*** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'', she switches to a simpler white dress. [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:After_Rydia.png Rydia,]] on the other hand...** The fiend Barbariccia also fits the wardrobe. * StupidSacrifice:** [[spoiler:Cid's apparent death - there's no actual reason that he needs to jump with the bomb. He could have thrown it. It's hard to imagine that he couldn't build a remote controlled bomb either, considering how he has a remote control ''airship''. And he couldn't control the speed of his descent, so carrying it wouldn't have altered anything. Then he winds up surviving anyway, so it just comes off as a transparent method to bump him from the party in favor of Edge.]] Stupid as it may be, it's still a pretty awesome moment.** [[spoiler:Palom and Porom's sacrifice. Not only does one of them know Teleport, they're also traveling with a mage powerful enough to bring the whole castle down. Right after he recovers the memory of every spell he's ever known.]]*** Furthermore, [[spoiler:Palom and Tellah, being Black Magic users, know Fire spells. The doors at each end of the hallway are quite clearly (in the DS remake, at least) made of ''wood''. Which fire can burn. Would it really have been so hard for Palom and Tellah to cast their strongest Fire spell at the door they had to go through?]]*** There's probably a ton of ways out of this, but the two noted above may be a case of GamePlayStorySegregation. This event immediately comes after fighting a boss with a multi-hit near insta-death move, ergo he's supposed to be powerful. The implication may have been that they were too weak to try anything else if one assumes the basic fire spell is too weak to destroy the wall, or they just lack the magic power to teleport. * SummonMagic: Rydia.* TagalongKid: Rydia, at least at the start; Palom and Porom.* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Palom and Porom.]]* TechnicolorDeath* TeleportationRescue: Rosa saves everyone from a CollapsingLair by casting the Teleport spell, in a nice bit of GameplayAndStoryIntegration. (Granted, the cutscene version manages to take them many miles, while the usual one just gets you to the dungeon entrance.)* ThatsNoMoon: [[spoiler:The Red Moon is eventually revealed to be a giant spacecraft constructed by the Lunarians, a race of highly-advanced aliens.]]* ThemeMusicPowerUp: An utterly awesome example occurs after [[spoiler:Zeromus appears and floors everyone; the game cuts to the Tower of Prayer, where Palom urges the Elder of Mysidia to do something. Cue the ''Theme of Final Fantasy,'' which goes on for at least 5 minutes while all your former party members appear and lend Cecil and friends their power for the final battle.]]* ThemeNaming: The four elemental fiends are named for four of the Malebranche in Dante's Inferno.* ThisCannotBe: Golbez's reaction to [[spoiler:Tellah casting Meteor]] in the Tower of Zot.* TimeLimitBoss: Odin, and the Demon Wall.** Bahamut can be if you're not high enough level to tank his initial shot or are just plain careless.** Balnab/Barnabas becomes one if you defeat Dr. Lugae first.* TimeSkip: ''Final Fantasy IV: The After Years''* TinTyrant: Golbez.* TooAwesomeToUse: Many healing items, especially MP recovery potions, are rare and prohibitively expensive for most of the game. Tellah and Fusoya's advanced spells fall under this as well. Their limited MP, combined with the scarcity of MP recovery items, means that you'll likely be sticking to their mid-level spells most of the time.** Ethers cost 10000 gil, to be exact, and (except on the Easytype version) are only available for buying very late in the game. However, at that point, this is averted, because when you [[spoiler:reach the moon]], you can steal ethers from a plethora of enemies, including the very common Black Flan.** Remedies can be this too in the non-easytype versions, costing 5000 gil (which is 50 times what they cost in the easytype versions) and not being available to even buy until about a third of the way through the game.** Any "dummy" item.* TookALevelInBadass: Cecil. [[spoiler:After he becomes a Paladin, he becomes significantly stronger in every stat, can wield much stronger equipment and can destroy anything that made you cry tears of frustration when he was a Dark Knight.]] The best part? [[spoiler: This is when Paladin Cecil is level 1, compared to Dark Knight Cecil who's anywhere from 15-20.]]** The same can be said for [[spoiler: Tellah and Rydia. Possibly Edge, although his is much more CutscenePowerToTheMax.]]* TookAShortcut: Namingway in the DS version.** Also Rydia when she comes back... the normal route going through a cave infested with monsters and over seas of lava that even the airship can't cross at that point in the story.** Rosa near the beginning of the game somehow gets through the monster-filled Mist Cave, past the burnt-out village of Mist, past the impassable mountains created by the earthquake, and still manages to reach Kaipo at about the same time Cecil and Rydia do, if not before.* TornadoMove: The game has Barbariccia, [[ElementalEmbodiment the Fiend of Wind]], whose hair is said to be [[RapunzelHair three times the length of her body!]] She uses her killer tresses to whip up wind storms, including a tornado around her own body; which deflects all outside attacks. [[DeathFromAbove Attacks from above]], on the other hand...* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Inverted with Rydia: she has an innate talent for magic, but the trauma of watching her village being burned to the ground makes it difficult for her to use fire spells. * TrickBoss: Calcabrina and Dr. Lugae.* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Cecil, Kain, and Rosa.* UncommonTime: Part of "The Red Wings" is in 7/4.* UnderratedAndOverleveled: The game features Palom and Porom, a pair of HalfIdenticalTwins with formidable WonderTwinPowers that allow them to wipe out regular encounters in an eyeblink. They provide Cecil with [[GuestStarPartyMember some much needed support when he's separated from his main party]], despite being only [[ImprobableAge five years old]].* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:''Everyone'' except for Anna and Tellah. It's hard to say which is the most egregious example, Cid's "death" scene that should've been impossible to survive in at least half a dozen different ways, or Palom and Porom having their petrification reversed by the Elder despite Tellah, who's explicitly a more powerful mage than the Elder, saying it was impossible.]]* UnstableEquilibrium: Averted. Cecil is powerful enough to plow through all but the rarest RandomEncounters on his own for a good hour into the game. In fact, it really feels more like an EscortMission when he's paired up with Rydia and Edward, at least at first. The only time you might be in danger, when Undead show up, you get Tellah, who is ''even more powerful'' than Cecil and comes with the Fire and Cura spells.** Subverted in the remake (which remake...?), where he's more balanced with the early encounters.* UnstoppableRage: [[spoiler:Edge. After Dr. Lugae turned his parents into monsters and he was forced to kill them, Rubicante tells Edge that emotions hold humans back. After this, through his UnstoppableRage, Edge learns the spells Flood and Blitz.]]** Same goes for Tellah as well. After his daughter, Anna, was killed in the siege of Damcyan, he was determined to avenge her death by killing Golbez.* UpdatedRerelease: ''A LOT'', perhaps tying with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''. It's been released on the SNES (with two different versions in Japan), UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/WonderSwan, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, mobile phones, the Wii Virtual Console, and it is now on the PSP in the form of the ''Complete Collection'', with ''The After Years'' and an ''Interlude'' chapter bridging the two parts together. All with upgraded aesthetics.* UselessItem: The Fire Bomb in the SNES version. It wasn't completely DummiedOut - it's just only dropped by Red Dragons in the Lunar Subterranean. By that point, their damage is a pittance compared to what any of the characters can do in a single round.* UselessUsefulSpell: Averted in the DS remake. While the bosses are still immune to the really bad status effects ([[OneHitKill Death]], [[TakenForGranite Stone]], etc.), casting Slow is practically required to make some of them manageable. Additionally, the Stop and Paralyze effects are damn near required for the later dungeons, or else the ''random encounters'' will chew you up and spit you out.** Healing magic is horrible outside of battle. This finally gets fixed in the DS version.** Averted in the Japanese original and the Playstation 1 remake. Most enemies are vulnerable to at least one status ailment, and some of the trickier fights (or fights above your characters' current level) become much more manageable with judicious use. Bio and Stop in particular were extremely effective in handling fights. Played straight in the original American and Easytype version, where the difficulty level was reduced to the point that hammering basic attacks was sufficient. Played straight in a different fashion in the GBA remake, in which various bugs made the game the easiest of all versions.** Break in the PSP version can easily shortcut some of the later random encounters, costing less than the tier-3 elemental spells but being able to potentially oneshot entire enemy formations. While it's true that tougher enemies such as Behemoths or dragon enemies tend to be immune, it makes a lot of the endgame battles much easier.* VagueAge: Way back in the SNES days, this was true, especially for the American version which didn't have any ages in the manual or whatnot. Because of the "normalized" sprites resulting in everyone being surprisingly similar in height, it was unclear how old a lot of characters were meant to be - and this didn't just extend to child-Rydia and the twins, though they get the worst of it. Everyone's age was up to interpretation, and oftentimes fanon was way off the mark from eventually-published ages for things like the DS version:** Cecil, Kain and Rosa were actually really bad about this. Due to their pretty formal-looking sprites, the fact that they all have pretty high-ranking jobs (Cecil and Kain leading military units, and Rosa being a major figure within the Baron white mages), and the fact that Cecil and Rosa are ''basically'' engaged even at the start of the game, a lot of people had the three of them being pegged in at least their early thirties. Nope - Cecil and Kain are meant to be in their ''early twenties'', and Rosa is ''nineteen''. Those ages getting announced with the DS version surprised a ''lot'' of people.** As noted, the "kids" tended to get this especially bad, in no small part due to their sprites not really being much shorter than everyone else, though other elements didn't help. Rydia was "a cute child", but this could put her anywhere between 7 to 12, with a lot of people suspecting it might be on the older side due to having to take the sprites at face value. (The lower value turned out to be the correct age.) The twins got it much worse - their SNES sprites actually look subtly "older" than Rydia's, Palom's in particular, and Palom's [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Bart Simpson-esque wisecracking]] and Porom's [[{{Keigo}} practiced formality]] (along with the stated fact that they were students [[spoiler:and the fact that they were trusted to be spies]]) had a lot of people thinking they ''had'' to be at least pre-teens, if not early teens. Nope again - Palom and Porom are ''five years old''. They're just ''that'' precocious.** Edge also threw a lot of people off - his hotheadedness, use of slang, flirty attitude toward the (then-teenagerized) Rydia (and to a lesser extent, his relationship with his parents and [[spoiler:his reaction to their fate]]) made pretty much everyone assume he was 17-18. Nope again: he's actually one of the ''older cast members'' at 26! He's significantly older than Cecil, Kain or Rosa!* VideoGameRemake: After receiving a Game Boy Advance port, the game was reworked from the ground up [[VideoGame3DLeap in full 3D]] for the Nintendo DS.* VideoGameStealing: In versions previous to the DS remake, Edge ran with this to an absurd degree - there was no limit to how many times you could steal an item from an enemy. They apparently just had an unlimited supply of these items (never used, of course) kept in {{Hammerspace}}.* VillainSong: Not an official one, but this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8vz186pjY0 fan-made one]] is about as good as they come. Doubles as an EarWorm!* VillainTeleportation: Golbez does this so many times, it's not clear why he needs to send his armies to attack the castles guarding the crystals when he could just jump in and grab them.* TheWallsAreClosingIn: One bad guy traps the heroes in one of these during a {{cutscene}} as they try to escape his lair after taking him out. [[spoiler: Palom and Porom, the two cute kid mages, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice themselves to save the others]] by turning themselves to stone and stopping the walls.]]** The sequence where you actually have to fight [[AdvancingWallOfDoom the Demon Wall]] to the death as it advanced counts, too. If the wall advances all the way, your party members start dying instantly one by one.* WakeUpCallBoss: The Calcabrina fight. "Oh, some child's dolls, how cu-- ''what did they just transform into?!''" Especially so in the easy version released on the SNES, as its difficulty was not reduced much, resulting in one of the first bosses the player was likely to wipe on repeatedly.* WeakWilled: Kain - he gets controlled by Golbez ''twice'', and it's hinted that Zemus tries ''again'' in the final dungeon in the GBA and later releases. Kain resists the third time, though.* WeBuyAnything: Unremarkable standard use of the trope, but it does become amusing in Mysidia where the merchants will happily buy Cecil's Dark equipment that the townspeople curse so much.* WelcomeBackTraitor: Kain again, and it happens ''[[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor twice]]'' no less.** The second time he comes back, Edge actually defies the trope by calling him out on it, asking Kain what he expects them to do if he gets brainwashed again. Kain's response is succinct: [[IDieFree Kill him.]][[note]]In the DS version, he actually almost succumbs a ''third time'', during the final dungeon, and only barely manages to hang on when Zemus goes too far and tries to make him think that killing Rosa would be a good idea, if his thought bubbles are any indication.[[/note]]* WeUsedToBeFriends: Cecil and Kain. Obviously.* WhatDoesThisButtonDo: Dr. Lugae, while he's manually operating Barnabas. It turns out that it's Barnabas's [[spoiler:self-destruct]] button.** TooDumbToLive: He built the damn thing.* WhenEldersAttack: Tellah does this to Edward in a scripted battle, hitting him with his cane and calling him a SpoonyBard. * WhipItGood: Rydia.* WhiteHairBlackHeart: ** Golbez has an [[ZigZaggingTrope odd relationship with this trope]]--in the original version, there was no way to know for sure if he fit the archetype, since [[TheFaceless he never took his helm off.]] Since he's [[spoiler:Cecil's brother]], though, it was a reasonable assumption. The DS version seemingly averted it, as he clearly has brown hair in flashbacks, but on the other hand, we only ever see Golbez's face in flashbacks from when he was a child, so that could have changed in the intervening years. ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]'' confirms this impression, as Golbez appears without his armor in that game, and definitely has white hair. Of course, by then, it's subverted, as he too has reformed, and his role throughout the entirety of ''The After Years'' is decidedly non-villainous.** Subverted with Cecil, who is TheHero.* WhiteMagicianGirl: Rosa is the prototypical example of the personality, even though she's better off using a bow. Porom also fits the character type, both in personality and skillset.* WhoDares: This exchange in the [=PlayStation=] translation:-->'''King:''' Cecil!? You ingrate! How dare you renounce the dark sword without my authority!?\\'''Cecil:''' ...How dare [[NoYou YOU]] renounce your duty to your people, "Your Majesty"!* WholePlotReference: [[spoiler: To Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds, if you examine Zemus's motives closely.]]* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Rydia's initial aversion to Fire stems from Cecil and Kain "accidentally" burning down her home village and killing nearly everything in it.* WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou: At the conclusion, a dying Zemus vows to keep fighting. That vow causes his hatred to become the final boss, Zeromus.* WithThisHerring: Averted, Cecil and Kain are experienced soldiers, so they start at Level 10 with full equipment and will have no problem cleaving their way through normal enemies up to the first boss. Played with in regards to your starting supplies, which is a handful of gil and whatever items you find in the castle; it's implied that the King [[UriahGambit wasn't interested in the two surviving his mission]], so of course he wouldn't give them much to help them.* WizardBeard: Fusoya.* WonderTwinPowers: The Twincast ability. Palom and Porom have it natively, but you can use [[PowersAsPrograms Augments]] in the DS version to put them on other characters, which can change the spell you might get. Giving it to Cecil and Rosa gives them the [[AwesomeButImpractical Ultima]] [[ThePowerOfLove spell]] which, if the damage cap is raised, outdamages ''everything else in the game''.* WorldOfHam: The DS remake combines voice acting with much more flowery dialogue than past releases to create this.-->'''Rosa:''' "Kain! Tell me you've not turned traitor!" \\'''Kain:''' "Don't look at me!" \\'''Golbez:''' "''Kain''! Why do you now hesitate?"* WorthyOpponent: Rubicante.** As explained in other tropes, Rubicante is a sort of NobleDemon. He fights you with your whole strength (healing the party before the fight every time), spares Edge life once, tries to explain to Edge how one should fight, apologizes for the bad deeds of his subordinates, and doesn't try to kill the party once he knows he has lost, which the other bosses often do.* WrittenSoundEffect: Either a "POW!" or a *whack* on several occasions where Porom gives Palom a well-deserved hit.* {{Wutai}}: Eblan fills this niche, being a nation of ''{{ninja}}''. The [[RetCon (now dubiously canon)]] guidebook ''Settei Shiryou Hen'', released alongside the SFC game in Japan, [[http://www.sceneryrecalled.com/trans/ff4comp.htm#Eblana gives further history on Eblan]] which is ripped straight from the pages of Japan's own history, describing how the nation [[FeudalJapan once consisted of multiple warrior factions]] and was deeply isolationist before being contacted by airships from Baron, analogous to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ships Commodore Perry's Black Ships]].** Fabul [[InterchangeableAsianCultures can be mistaken for this]], sharing the Oriental flair in addition to the fact that the [[DubInducedPlothole English SNES version]] [[DubNameChange changes the martial art practiced there]] to the decidedly Japanese ''{{karate}}''. However, Fabul is intended to resemble the ''{{wuxia}}'' stereotype of ImperialChina. * YearInsideHourOutside: Rydia's PlotRelevantAgeUp after her journey to the Feymarch.* YouCantThwartStageOne: By about halfway through, the good guys should just be going "Here, take the damn crystal" as soon as Golbez appears.* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: If you kill enough Goblins, Bombs, Cockatrice, and Mindflayers; they have RandomlyDrops of their own summon that Rydia can use. This must mean their own souls are intact enough for her to control.* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: [[spoiler:Cecil's deal with Golbez: Troia's crystal for Rosa. [[ILied Guess who holds out on his end of the deal?]]]]** [[spoiler: Technically Rosa was left behind in the Tower, so he did fulfill his end of the deal, it would have been Cecil's fault if he wasn't quick enough to free her from the execution chair she was strapped to.]]------>[[AC:>Magic > Flame]]\\"Poor technique. ''This'' [[PreAssKickingOneLiner is how it's done]]."----